It’s Worlds week. Everybody knows it. It was Worlds week a couple of weeks ago too in the 1/10 IC Tourer category – but with the greatest of respect to fans of that class of R/C (and to the legend Naoto Matsukura!), the 1/8 Offroad World Champs is currently the biggest game in town.

I’ve been pondering this event for a while now, and purely because I can, I’m going to share a few reflections in the form of a race preview. And just because I know it will be long, we’ll break it into a couple of parts over the next two days. If I get “really” motivated, I might record it as an audio podcast for those who like to listen and not to read. Let’s dive in!

THE HEADLINES
I’m wondering what the most likely headlines from this World Championships are. Whatever happens, whoever wins, whatever manufacturer comes out on top, there are going to be headlines, so let’s take a stab at a few of the potential headlines we’ll read on R/C media outlets around the world:

1. THE GOAT DOES IT AGAIN –THE FOUR-PEAT IS COMPLETE!
2. THE HOME SOIL CHAMP – USA TAKES THE TITLE!
3. WORLD CHAMPION AT LAST - NO LONGER THE BRIDESMAID!
4. POTENTIAL FULFILLED, A NEW WORLD CHAMP! 
5. TYRE-GATE 2027 – A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUINED?
6. TQ CURSE STRIKES AGAIN!
7. US WORLDS BUILDS A EURO TRACK!
8. USA! USA! USA!
9. SHOCK WINNER – THE TITLE GOES BACK TO ASIA!
10. BACK ON TOP – THE WORLD’S WINNINGEST TEAM DOES IT AGAIN!

You get the idea. This side of next Sunday, there are so many ways this World Championship could play out. And, honestly, from a story perspective, just about any outcome will be amazing. We’ll get to driver assessment later, but for now, I see it simply. If Ongaro wins, what a story – four times in a row would be an achievement of monumental proportions. If Ronnefalk backs up 10 years after his first? Unreal! Imagine someone like Coelho or Kaerup or Rivkin crossing over to a non-favoured discipline and winning? Outstanding! Or someone like Canas or Boots or Phend or Maifield winning the title at last? What a story! And if it goes to just about anybody else, it’s a breakthrough win that establishes a new legend. However the next week goes, it’s going to be a great story.

WHY DOES THIS WORLDS MATTER SO MUCH?
Every IFMAR world championship event matters hugely, there’s no doubt about that. They happen once every two years, a single event, where everything has to go exactly right to win. They’re the nearest thing we have to an Olympic games. Everybody shows up to the same place, on the same date – and you put up or shut up. You win, or go home. There’s no place to hide, and despite the best attempts over the years, no excuses. Any Worlds winner goes into the IFMAR Hall of Fame, forever part of the history of our sport. But some World Champs feel like they matter more than others, and this is one of them. Why? I think there are a few reasons:

First, it’s an off-road Worlds in the USA. For a couple of decades now, the US has been the epicentre of off-road racing. Maybe its just because we all read and watch English-language R/C media with a natural US bias, or because it’s the financial centre of the sport, or it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, or it’s the chance for the talent-packed US team to fight for a WC on home turf, or that just about every R/C media company on the planet will be there and coverage will be off the charts. Who knows, really,  but winning a World Champs – offroad in particular – on US soil just feels big. And with the rotation system in play, it only happens every eight years (in a normal cycle), so it’s a rare opportunity.

Second, it comes off the back of two straight events on the same track in Redovan, Spain. That’s not a criticism, the context around Redovan being asked to host in 2024 after the stunning 2022 event are well known. But the second time around just didn’t feel as special to many fans of the sport around the world. So wherever the race was being fought out next week, there would be something of a sense of excitement about a new venue.

Third, it’s the first 1/8 Worlds (that I can recall – correct me!) to be fought out under a roof. So, there’s a guaranteed race, with no fear of wet weather impacting proceedings as has happened in the past (say Charlotte 2008, or Argentina 2012, for example)

Fourth, it’s an opportunity for Davide Ongaro to put his status as the greatest of all time completely beyond doubt. Like it or not, this is a story that looms large over this event. His last four 1/8 World Championship results are 6th (on debut at 14 years of age), 1st, 1st, and 1st. He is the Max Verstappen of our sport, the best of his generation, and a man uniquely focused on the IFMAR World Champs above any other race. The result this week might just confirm him as the best of all time.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN?
It’s always a good question to ask even if the answers might seem a little obvious: what does it take to win one of these events.

First, it takes outright speed: seed well over three consecutive laps so you’re in a good qualifying group, qualify well over multiple 10-minute runs so you start up front in a semi-final, race that 30-minute semi fast enough to start the one-hour main near the front – and then be the fastest of everybody over that 60 minutes. Speed is essential, over three laps, over 10 minutes, over 30 minutes and over an hour. Not everybody can be fast over all those different race lengths. I think we might see that this week – where some of the 1/10 off-road drivers cross over into 1/8 and are super-fast over 10 minutes, but struggle over 30 or 60 – for example.

Second, it takes absolute reliability and perfection in mechanical preparation and mechanical sympathy. There are multiple drivers who’ve appeared among the fastest, seemed like a lay-down certainty for the win or podium, but fallen at the reliability hurdle. Perhaps most famously, Elliot Boots in Argentina, or Ryan Maifield in Italy, or David Ronnefalk in Australia as a few examples.

Third, it takes a team. First, that means a manufacturer team putting together a car good enough to win this race, on this track, on this day. Some manufacturers have a long history of winning World Championships in multiple disciplines (think Kyosho or Team Associated, for example), while for others (SWorkz, Sparko, Tekno) a 2026 win would be a break-through achievement. That culture of winning, and the infrastructure, engineers, mechanics and mindset is not easily put together.

That team thing though, it gets smaller too – the mechanic/driver pairing is the team at the heart of this race. The preparation, the tyre gluing, the fuel strategy and pit-stop execution. Those little 1% things that happen between a driver and mechanic – those all have to be lined up for a win this week.

Fourth, it takes a tyre. IFMAR’s continued open-tyre rules in 1/8 offroad are unique not just in R/C, but in nearly any world-championship-level motorsport. You cannot win this race, cannot become World Champion, without the right tyre. Tyre manufacturers, tyre choice, tyre compound and tyre preparation (now that the saucing situation has been clarified) might just play a huge role in determining next week’s winner. If your tyre company brings you a winning edge, then maybe you kind of only have to race against your tyre-brand teammates, not the rest of the field (Yokomo 1989 is the most famous example of this). Which of the myriad of tyre brands comes with a new tread pattern, or compound, or preparation method that ekes out an advantage? That’s going to be one of the biggest questions of the race – and one that likely won’t be answered until the track evolves into something like it’s final condition late in the week. Or until the final ten minutes when the wrong tyre choice for that 60-minute main is finally, brutally revealed.

And, of course, it takes a little luck. Everything just has to go your way – the things within your control and the things beyond it. You have to stay healthy, sleep well, avoid a tumbling car that lands in your path, keep your mind-set right, somehow ensure the proverbial 10-cent part doesn’t fail right in the middle of the biggest race of the year. Of course most of that isn’t really “luck” at all – but ‘a little luck’ is a short-hand way of saying you avoided every avoidable detour on the way to the win.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE VENUE?
I haven’t already said it yet – so let me be clear: I’m an armchair expert here. I haven’t been to Thornhill, and in fact haven’t been to a 1/8 Offroad Worlds in person at all. Hopefully one day that happens. But it means I have to be honest and say that everything I ponder, wonder and pontificate about has to come with a caveat – I’m a fan watching on YouTube just like everybody else. So what I know about Thornhill is based purely on that: what I see, what I read, what I hear racers who have been there talk about. If you know Thornhill first hand, then 100% chime in with a comment and correct or expand on anything I might say.

So, Thornhill. It’s been a mainstay in US racing for an age. Starting first as an outdoor track, then later with the addition of the roof. It has played host to multiple US Nationals, plus its own annual major event. No US driver has any excuse to say they aren’t familiar with it. Just last year it hosted the US ROAR 1/8 National Champs. It’s a known quantity.

The dirt is typically lightly treated to prevent dust and help it bind, but otherwise just water and sweeping. It is likely to start out loose, but within a day or two start to build a groove and develop into at least a medium level of traction. Pin tyres early, bar tyres later, clay compounds in the end? Something like that. Once it grooves up, the surface typically holds together pretty well, not blowing out like some of the more famed US venues like DNC or Silverstate or the indoor arena races that take place on loose dirt that shifts and changes across the week.

It’s not huge, with the size of the track constrained by the roofed area. It seems nowhere near the size of Redovan where the last two World Champs have been fought out. Some say that the size and the typical nature of the track layouts at Thornhill make it feel a little more familiar to regular 1/10 racers than some of the really big outdoor 1/8 tracks.

It will behave differently. It’s true for nearly every off-road World Championship – the track will behave differently than it has in the past. The unique conditions present at a Worlds – nitro buggy only, for example, or tyre saucing, or different brands and compounds of rubber, or the pure number of laps turned over the number of days. All of those things almost always combine to produce track conditions that are different to ‘the usual’, or ‘the warmup race’. Who will react fastest? Who will be stuck with a pre-determined run and setup plan? We only have to rewind 12 months to Hills RC in Sydney Australia for the 2025 IFMAR 1/10 Offroad Worlds to see how devastating it can be when unexpected track conditions pop up.

THE MANUFACTURERS
There’s a big difference, I think, between building a great race car that suits a wide variety of drivers on a wide variety of tracks and building a race car that can win a World Championship on one specific track on one specific day. For those of us who inhabit club-land, we need consistent, accessible performance, mechanical reliability, neutral handling, affordable and accessible parts…and so on. To win a worlds, the ask is entirely different. And the driving talent is entirely different too. So picking the company most likely to put together a Worlds challenge is very different than picking the best all-round chassis on the market when it comes time for the next purchase. At least that’s my theory.

So, let’s take a look at the long, long line of chassis manufacturers lining up for a shot at World Championship glory.

Team Associated: We have to start here. They’re back-to-back-to-back champions and have the best driver in the world on board. And the AE team is a Worlds-winning machine without parallel across all the disciplines of R/C. So you have to put them at the top of the list. The newly released RC8B4.2 has looked fast all year, with different configurations appearing in different conditions. Ongaro has trialed an LCG setup – probably won’t see that here though?

SWorkz: One of the highest performers on the world stage in recent years, and with a strong US team as well. There’s almost no doubt that SWorkz will feature high up with their newly released S35-5. A first Worlds win in 1/8 buggy would be massive.

Tekno: It’s a huge opportunity and a big challenge for this US-based team. When conditions suit, the NB48 2.2 can be phenomenally fast, and the always-strong US team is joined by it’s Euro members here to bring other insights. That and the rumours of a new platform that continue to circulate. What better way to launch a new car than a World Champs win?

Mugen: One of the absolute mainstays of 1/8, the Japanese Mugen Seiki MBX range has featured in so many World finals, it’s ridiculous. Reliable, fast. But is the team big enough and strong enough to get the job done here? It only takes one, right?

XRAY: Yet to win a 1/8 offroad worlds, but a hugely talented driver lineup – and if rumours are to be believed, some new parts aimed at sharpening up the car to produce the speed needed to challenge at Worlds level. Can they be well organised enough to work effectively together across the Euro and US team?

Kyosho: One of the best new releases of the last couple of years, the MP11 impresses for its speed in many conditions – including here in the hands of Phi Long Nguyen back at the warmup race. Can this tight-knit team add a new chapter to Kyosho’s legendary Worlds story?

Sparko: Rapidly emerging brand on the world scene and building a team packed with similarly emerging talent. Sparko doesn’t yet have a true global front-running driver, but maybe that changes this week? An A-Final appearance would be a good result.

Mayako: One of the smaller teams, but with a super-tight Iivonen/JQ driver/engineer team. Iivonen appeared on NNRC this week saying they’d run a more traditional upright shock setup rather than the LCG setup we’ve become used to, but is that the whole story?

Inf1nity: small but stacked lineup for this more on-road focussed company. What chance a revised chassis this week?

The rest? There’s a bunch of other brands likely to be present, if less likely to be an outright factor. Agama, TLR (it still pains me to list them in “the rest”), WiRC (Neumann though!), Hobao, HB. Who did I miss?

TOMORROW: THE DRIVERS
We'll be back tomorrow with part two of our preview series, where we cast an eye over the field to see who might feature. For now though, what did we get wrong? What would you add, or correct, or extend?

(Note: AI assisted image. 100% human words)